The Blackwoods have an old and bitter feud against their neighbor in the riverlands, the Brackens, coming from the Age of Heroes when both houses ruled as kings. According to the Blackwoods, the Brackens were petty lords and horse breeders who hired swords to usurp the Blackwood kings. The Blackwoods believe this occurred five hundred years before the arrival of the Andals, but the True History states it was one thousand years before the Andals.[5]

Andal Riverlands

The Blackwoods and Brackens allied together against the Andal invasion, but they were defeated in the Battle of the Bitter River.[7] The feud was aided by House Bracken's conversion to the Faith of the Seven after the Andal invasion.[8] In contrast, the Blackwoods kept the religion of the old gods, being one of the few houses south of the Neck to do so. The Blackwoods accuse the Brackens of having poisoned the weirwood of Raventree Hall.[5] The Teats, Battle Valley, and the village of Blackbuckle are part of the disputed land. There have been numerous peaces between the Blackwoods and Brackens, many sealed by marriage, but the feud always restarts.[5] Benedict Rivers was a bastard born from both houses who eventually became King Benedict I Justman, with House Justman ruling the riverlands for about three centuries. There were Blackwoods among the many petty kings who disputed the riverlands in the tumultuous century after King Bernarr II Justman's death.[7]

Quotes

We've had a hundred peaces with the Brackens, many sealed with marriages. There's Blackwood blood in every Bracken, and Bracken blood in every Blackwood. The Old King's Peace lasted half a century. But then some fresh quarrel broke out, and the old wounds opened and began to bleed again. That's how it always happens, my father says. So long as men remember the wrongs done to their forebears, no peace will ever last. So we go on century after century, with us hating the Brackens and them hating us. My father says there will never be an end to it.[5]